GASP proudly introduces the work of Sergio Durante

GASP proudly introduces the work of Sergio Durante

Opening Reception;
Friday, April 10, 2009 5:30 - 8pm
Artist talk @ 6:30 pm

In 2006, Neil participated in the Berklee College of Music Faculty Exchange program and taught at the University of Padova where he worked for Prof. Sergio Durante. The faculty exchange project led to a rich exchange of ideas and several projects involving Prof. Durante and people within the GASP community. Based on this rich discourse we invited Prof. Durante to contribute to this seasons theme of examining the work of self taught artists. We are proud to present the first exhibition of his work.

-Neil Leonard and Magdalena Campos-Pons

A privilege of the 'self taught' is that he/she does not usually need to pursue a career in Art. To me, painting is just an amusing school of vision, a game I like to play in the not too frequent free-time; simplicity represents a goal and an alternative to the 'first life': my profession as musicologist. Simple-mindedness though is difficult to achieve at 54. That explains why - for instance - my series "Les mots et les choses", builds on very elementary watercolors a second layer of meaning, somewhat elusive, quoting Michel Foucault's best known title. Still a game though, in this case on the 'tics' of contemporary art.
- Sergio Durante

Biography:

Sergio Durante (Padua, Italy, 1954) studied Music and Musicology at the University and at the Conservatory in Bologna. After a few years spent working as a practical musician, he turned his interests to Historical musicology entering the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University in 1985 and completing a Ph.D program in 1993.

His main musicological focus is methodology, investigated through studies on specific subjects ranging from Italian XVII Century to the Classical period (Mozart in particular), to Electro-acoustic music of the XXth Century. He has published essays in Italy, Germany, Austria, England, France, and Spain devoting his energies in recent years to Mozart studies in particular (member of the Mozart Academy in Salzburg since 2000).

At first associate professor at the University of Pavia, and since 2000 Full professor at the University of Padua where he chairs the Department of Music and Visual Arts. In recent years he has developed for the City of Padua an event taking place once a year, under the name Giornata dell’Ascolto (Listening day); the multi-media event approaches inductively the banalization of listening in contemporary world.
Painting (watercolor in particular) has been an interest since the 1980’s, leading to limited but constant production. His visual work does not have a significant relationship with his music studies and represents, rather, a distinct and alternative activity.

Extra information about the Artist

It is customary for Art galleries to provide a CV of the Artist. This being the first time my work is exhibited in public, I can offer no such information. I do remember however that two of my abstract watercolors are in the possession of a fellow student from the Bologna days and another one (La citta ideale) is part of a private collection in the same city.I should at least mention that a stimulus for my visual activity came from the study of XIVth century music manuscripts during my studies at Harvard. I never quite mastered the intricacies of the notational code but I was fascinated by the scribal art.

Raneem Farsi
GASP Gallery Manager
362 Boylston Street
Brookline Ma 02445
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